The first ever truly embedded SDR

First of all, a massive thank you to everyone who backed the campaign,
supported us with messages, reported issues, helped fix them, ported
their apps to support XTRX, and shared their test results with us.

We’ve gathered a lot of feedback from our backers and other industry
players, and while this may disappoint some of our backers, we decided
to replace XTRX CS (Crowd Supply) version with XTRX Pro -
a higher spec but also more expensive revision of XTRX. We believe that
this will ultimately help us achieve our goal - a widely available,
high-quality embeddable SDR.

At the same time, we’re always happy to create customized, price
optimized versions of XTRX for customers with high volume orders.
We also intend to introduce more XTRX versions with different specs
depending on feedback and demand.

XTRX Pro vs XTRX CS

XTRX CS

XTRX Pro

FPGA

Xilinx Artix 7 35T

Xilinx Artix 7 50T

Temperature range

Commercial: 0°C to 70°C

Industrial: -40°C to 85°C

Reference clock

500 ppb

100 ppb

GPSDO

Yes

Yes

Price (1 pc)

$260

$599 ($550 pre-order)

Software drivers will automatically detect the XTRX hardware version,
so there should be no difference from an application perspective -
unless you use a feature only available in the Pro version.

XTRX CS is the version initially offered during the Crowd Supply
campaign. If you placed an order before this update was published, you
will be receiving the XTRX CS version. You can always check which
version you ordered by logging in to your Crowd Supply
account. If you would like to
change your order, you can do so by contacting Crowd
Supply. Be sure to include your
order number.

FPGA Size and DSP Acceleration

A bigger FPGA is a frequent request we get from backers who want to
pre-process samples on the FPGA before sending them to the
computer. The Artix 7 50T on XTRX Pro gives you a good deal of
space for DSP processing. We will publish a detailed FPGA utilization
report a bit later when we publish the FPGA code.

One thing few people accustomed to USB-based SDRs realize is that,
with a PCIe bus, there is plenty of bandwidth to move data back and
forth between an XTRX and a PC. Even better, the latency of the PCIe
bus is much lower than the latency of USB 3. This means you can have
DSP accelerators on the XTRX FPGA!

A DSP accelerator is an FPGA block which can be accessed from the PC
as a function call. As an example, one could implement an FFT DSP
block. You would then get raw samples from an SDR, preprocess them on
a CPU, then move them back to the XTRX FPGA for FFT and get frequency
domain samples back to the CPU again. This allows you to combine the
best of both worlds – the flexibility and simplicity of CPU programming
with the high performance of FPGA processing.

What else does a larger FPGA allow us to do? We can, for example, put
a RISC-V softcore onto the XTRX. Combined with DSP accelerators on the
FPGA, this opens even more possibilities.

We plan to offer a set of DSP accelerators for the most popular
cases. Please share your ideas of which accelerators would be most
useful.

Note that the FPGA code will be released under a permissive
open source license, which will allow you to create both open source
and proprietary extensions to the baseline FPGA image.

Temperature Range

While intuitively understandable, this parameter is worth some
explanation. First of all, please make sure you don’t confuse
“temperature range” with “operating ambient temperature.”

Temperature range specifies the hottest and coldest points on the
hottest and coldest chips on the PCB, respectively.

The ambient (environmental) temperature at which your system will be
able to operate will always be more restrictive than the temperature
range. Exactly how much more restricted is determined by the
temperature gradient of your heat dissipation/cooling solution, which
is normally at least 10°C.

We paid a lot of attention to heat dissipation and made sure the
hottest chips (RFIC and FPGA) are both on the bottom side of the XTRX
PCB to make it easy to dissipate the heat into a carrier PCB. At the
same time, the metallic cage on the top side of the XTRX PCB serves a
dual purpose of RF shielding and additional heat dissipation because
it’s well thermocoupled with the RFIC chip. If you can’t dissipate
heat into the underlying PCB or if you just want some extra heat
dissipation, you can put a heatsink onto the cage.

Reference Clock

Most, if not all, other low-cost SDRs available on the market use
TCXOs with a frequency stability of 1-2 ppm, or even 20 ppm. This
means that at a frequency of 1 GHz, you will tune +/- 1-2 kHz or +/-
20 kHz respectively. Your sampling clock will be similarly off as
well. This works fine for a lot of use cases, but some important use
cases we’re targeting require much better reference frequency
stability. For example, cellular applications require 50 ppb accuracy
for macro cells and 200 ppb for small cells. Radar and some other
applications require very stable clocks as well. This is where XTRX’s
100 ppb / 500 ppb TCXO will make a lot of difference - running a
GSM/UMTS/LTE base station with XTRX will “just work.”

XTRX Pro Availability and Early Access

We plan that XTRX Pro units ordered now will ship before
January 31, 2019. The exact shipping date will be announced later
when we go into production.

For a limited time, pre-orders of XTRX Pro will be offered at a
special price of $550, after which the retail price of $599 will take
effect. Meanwhile, if you want an XTRX Pro right away, we have several
samples of the XTRX Pro ready for immediate shipping at an Early
Access price of $2,500 per unit.

Deluxe Bundle, Octopack, and Accessories

As we transition from XTRX CS to XTRX Pro, the Deluxe Bundle and
Octopack pledge levels will make similar transitions, effective
immediately. If you’ve already placed an order for the Deluxe Bundle
or Octopack as of the time of this update being published, you will be
getting XTRX CS versions of those products. The Antennas + Cables, USB
3 Adapter with Aluminum Enclosure, and PCIe x2 Front End Adapter will
remain unchanged for now, but will likely increase in price once
production is complete and they are in stock.

XTRX CS Version End-of-Life Timeline

If you want to have the lower cost XTRX CS, they will be available
for sale either until Nov 6 or until we sell out the remaining 250
pieces.

At the same time, we want to assure you that the XTRX CS version will
enjoy software and firmware support for the foreseeable future.

XTRX Pro

Get an XTRX Pro board. Does not include any cables, antennas, or adapter boards.

In Stock

Free US Shipping / $15 Worldwide

$799

XTRX Pro Deluxe Bundle

Get an XTRX Pro board as well as an Antennas + Cables set, a PCIe x2 + Front End Adapter, and a USB 3 Adapter with Aluminum Enclosure (see below for details). Also comes with four extra U.FL-to-U.FL cables and four extra U.FL-to-SMA-male cables.

USB 3 Adapter with Aluminum Enclosure

This adapter converts your XTRX from Mini PCIe to USB 3 and comes with an aluminum enclosure designed specifically for XTRX. The adapter has three status LEDs, a micro USB 3 port, one SMA connector for the GPS antenna, four SMA connectors for the MIMO Tx/Rx antenna pairs, a micro SIM card slot, and a slot for a GPIO FPC cable. Comes with a USB cable and all RF cables for internally connecting an XTRX to the SMA connectors. Does not include an XTRX, antennas, or FPC cable.

Orders placed now ship Mar 07, 2019.

Free US Shipping / $10 Worldwide

$99

PCIe x2 + Front End Adapter

This PCIe card securely holds an XTRX board (not included) so it can be used in a standard PCIe x4 slot. It includes an RF front end with a LNA and PA for up to 100 mW
output on each channel. A TDD switch is
incorporated for applications like TDD LTE. You can bypass the front end by attaching cables directly to
XTRX. This adapter achieves the full 10 Gbit/s
raw bus bandwidth and can be plugged into x4/x8/x16 PCIe
slots. A six-pin JTAG connector makes it easy to program and debug the FPGA. A micro SIM card slot is also present.

Orders placed now ship Feb 21, 2019.

Free US Shipping / $10 Worldwide

$5,999

XTRX Pro PCIe Octopack

This single PCIe card comes loaded with eight (8!) removable XTRX Pro boards, metal installation brackets, enough cables for all GPS and MIMO Tx/Rx ports, and a special board for synchronizing all eight XTRX Pro boards.

Orders placed now ship Mar 31, 2019.

Free Worldwide Shipping

$2,500

XTRX Pro Early Access

Here's your chance to get an XTRX Pro board right away. We'll send you an XTRX Pro prototype board within two weeks of you placing your order and we'll follow up with a production version as soon as they come off the assembly line. Only a handful available.

We are a vertically integrated vendor of cellular equipment focused on the needs of emerging markets. We are developing, manufacturing, deploying, and operating turn-key cellular network solutions including radio equipment, towers, power and backhaul all the way to a core network and SS7 interconnect. Our team has been building software-defined radios and systems based on them since 2009 and is well known for its ClockTamer, UmTRX, and UmSITE products.